“The Texas Tenors far exceeded what everybody thought they were going to be. They had every single person right in the palm of their hand …” — Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan

OCEAN CITY, MD – City officials were blown away by the first-ever performance at the new Performing Arts Center last weekend.

The Roland E. Powell Convention Center’s new Performing Arts Center (PAC) held its first performance on Saturday night. The facility will host concerts, musicals and theatrical productions as well as seminars with its state-of-the-art equipment and two tiered seating with a little over 1,200 seats, dressing rooms, concession areas and a box office. It will also be used by conventions.

Bob Rothermel and Jack Hannon of T.E.A.M Productions brought the “Deep in the Heart of Christmas” show by The Texas Tenors, joined by special guest, The Reminders, to the new PAC last weekend, and on Monday evening Rothermel took the opportunity to come before the Mayor and City Council to present an autographed Texas Tenors poster.

“Jack Hannon and I have been involved in the entertainment business for dare I say decades, and we wanted to be part of this new facility, and be the first one in,” Rothermel said in thanking the Mayor and City Council and city staff for the opportunity. “We picked a great group to open the venue. They were humbled that we went after them to appear at that date.”

According to Rothermel, the show was nearly sold out with over 1,000 tickets sold.

“Some people thought that couldn’t be done, and I am here to tell you it can be done. It is a great facility,” he said. “Facilities are like people. They have their own personalities and nuisances, and you have to learn. We learned some of those nuisances while we were setting up, and there are still probably some things we don’t know about it, but it is a great facility and it is going to do very well.”

Mayor Rick Meehan accepted the gift and thanked T.E.A.M Productions for bringing The Texas Tenors to the convention center.

“I can tell you that I didn’t see anybody that wasn’t smiling. Everybody was happy, and I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and said, ‘I just want you to know how wonderful this is, and how good it is for Ocean City.’ They loved the building. They loved the show, and the acoustics were terrific,” the mayor said. “The Texas Tenors far exceeded what everybody thought they were going to be. They had every single person right in the palm of their hand … and all-in-all it was a busy night in Ocean City. A lot of the restaurants said they had people come before and after the show, so it provided the economic benefit it was supposed to.”